We need professionals

Louise Fauteux, the youth choir director, sent this over:

I am mortally offended by the Policy Board’s idea to use volunteers to run the choirs. Saying we will use volunteers is a handy method to try to say we will not lose those programs.

Our church does have some very talented musicians and one or two educationally qualified members to do this. I have often tried to point out that our membership has strong music skills which can be tapped. We save money in the choirs by asking them to accompany on various instruments when they can.

Many church members show they value the music outside of church. They sing in Concora, the Hartford Chorale, and other choirs, as well as various non-classical venues. They attend concerts, send their kids to summer music programs and pay for private music lessons. I see in this context that they are ready and willing to pay for the expertise of those professionals.

To have a volunteer lead music in church is not the same as relying on a trained professional. There are many skills involved in working with children generally. Professional choir directors know how to work with children’s voices and can focus on using music appropriate to their age. Someone who has the appropriate training and experience and is unlikely to volunteer for the extra work. Why not?

A volunteer might not want to come on Easter and Christmas. A volunteer might work for a short window of time when it is convenient to do so. (Too bad for the kids who work best with the security of a continuous leader.) As soon as it’s not too convenient, requires extra time and commitment, and begs for time outside of one hour of week to plan the development of the program over a long term, or becomes stressful in any way, a volunteer CAN and WILL walk away. And why shouldn’t they? THEIR TIME IS VALUABLE.

Another way to illustrate this point: Say we propose to use church volunteers whenever the building needs a little maintenance. After all, we have talented plumbers, architects, carpenters, and who knows what else among our membership. So when the toilet breaks down, one of us will come fix it. And I do think someone would. But maybe not continuously all year long.

It might be flooding over when that volunteer would rather go attend a family wedding or funeral…. Why should they come in to fix it when they are not being paid for their time? Don’t they have bills to pay like anyone else? Isn’t what they do considered valuable?